Fossil discoveries by private paleontologists excavating an area between Oakland and Orinda paint a quite different picture of the East Bay. It seems that 9 to 10 million years, ago, the area was “a warm, wet and flat savanna.”

Now, this isn’t the first time that such discoveries have been made. Excavations in the 1930s and 1960s turned up plenty of other fossils around the site, and UC Berkeley researchers have found fossils from the same era elsewhere.

The different climate of course gave rise to some now unheard-of Bay Area residents. read more »